High speed rail: commentary

The spin machine was out in force following Mr Justice Ouseley's ruling.

Both supporters and opponents of the scheme claimed victory and the truth, inevitably, is somewhere in between.

Cheryl Gillan, the former Welsh Secretary and MP for Chesham and Amersham, hailed the judge's ruling as a victory for David against Goliath, when he upheld campaigners' claim that the Government's consultation process was unfair.

In fact his judgment was withering. Mr Justice Ouseley's exact words are worth repeating: "The consultation process in respect of blight and compensation was all in all so unfair as to be unlawful."

No matter how the Department for Transport tries to spin it, the judge's remarks are pretty devastating.

We are talking about what Maria Eagle, Labour's transport spokesman, rightly described as a botched consultation.

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Submissions from opponents were lost and the Government came up with something which potentially leaves hundreds of thousands of people facing if not financial ruin at least serious financial difficulties because of the scheme.

Irrespective of the importance – or otherwise – of the high speed rail project to Britain's future, it is incumbent on the Government to treat people who will be most affected by it fairly.

Clearly, Mr Justice Ouseley felt they did not.

However the Government will be mightily relieved they won on all the other counts and the fate of a flagship scheme supported by all three major parties will not be derailed by the Bechstein bat, Aylesbury Golf Club or whether the line should run through Heathrow.

Doubtless there will be yet more legal challenges. But it looks as if High Speed Rail does remain on track.